Kiwi innovation can boost rugby
All hail New Zealand, and their ever-pioneering approach to rugby. Last week, New Zealand Rugby (NZR) announced the introduction of a national competition solely for players weighing under 85kg (13st 5lb).
Although weight-restricted rugby is already played at regional level in the country, the
Under-85kg National Club Cup will be the inaugural nationwide initiative.
Starting in May, the competition is open to all clubs – professional Super Rugby teams aside – from Auckland to Invercargill, culminating in an August final at a prestigious venue yet to be announced.
Sir Graham Henry, the World Cup-winning former All Blacks head coach, is one of the competition’s driving forces, too. NZR has spotted the potential; it means business. In conventional rugby terms,
85kg is paltry. Antoine Dupont, the France halfback whose Six Nations performances have catapulted him into world rugby stardom, would only just qualify. Neil Back, England’s diminutive World Cup-winning openside, would have been too hefty.
The benefits for rugby in New Zealand, where playing numbers are declining, are palpable: small players are more likely to continue participating and, because they are often wonderfully skilful, the baseline skill levels across the sport will increase.
Could such an initiative work in England, too? How to organise it, with all of English rugby’s bureaucratic wranglings, is a moot point, but the benefits could radiate across English rugby.
In England, if you cannot
compete physically, the top clubs – and even in the semiprofessional national leagues, where the size of the average player is increasing to a frightening degree – do not want to know.
And why would they? You could have the best pass in the land but, when there is money on the line as far down as the fifth and sixth tiers, teams do not want a defensive liability in their ranks.
Young, lightweight players, therefore, could be forgiven for succumbing to the pressure of bulking up, especially when England and their World Cup conquerors, South Africa, have proven that, at the very top of the sport, ballast rules.
Physicality and muscle were at the heart of England’s dominance of Ireland on Monday (NZ time).
But what happens to those players who are too lean to play at the top level, but who might be proficient, intelligent rugby players nonetheless? What happens to the halfbacks, the utility backs, who might star for their amateur clubs and school sides but cannot physically mix it with the big boys?
Do they plough on, knowing that their joints are to be rearranged by 17st breeze blocks each week?
The braver ones might, of course, procuring some valiant David-over-Goliath tales for their grandchildren. But those with less gumption call it a day, their talent never realised. Their involvement in the sport is consigned to an early grave.
The amateur rugby pathway from teenager to adult in England is daunting for anyone, let alone for those who are not proportionally blessed. How can an 18-year-old halfback, emerging into the adult ranks, be expected to take the same field as a 33-year-old amateur weightlifter masquerading as a prop? It is counterproductive at best, and downright dangerous at worst.
An under-85kg competition has the power to begin plugging this talent drain, giving these players a home, and bridging that gap between youth and adult. It opens up another avenue, too: maintaining the participation of casual rugby players.
The new nationwide tournament will not be played every weekend. Suddenly, those who once loved playing rugby and still miss the match-day frisson, but cannot uphold a weekly commitment, return to the frame. Who knows where that could lead? Once they have the taste in their mouths again, maybe they would find the calendar space for a fulltime commitment.
Even if only played by amateurs, the effect that an officially endorsed competition prioritising brain over brawn could have on English rugby generally should not be ignored. Although England’s most impressive victories under Eddie Jones have been rooted in the physical, the criticism of his side is that they are inflexible and too stubborn when their planned approach falters.
Any initiative that produces freethinking, malleable rugby should be embraced. Internationals would benefit, but those who would be most grateful are the everyday players; the lifeblood of English rugby, without whom the sport would not survive.
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